Memories Never Just Disappear
by Edsaho Yanaga
Summary: What if Mikael wasn't a stranger to all of the people in Mystic Falls? What if he had know a certain dark haired handsome vampire? What if that vampire had been forced to forget? Focusing on the relationship between Damon and Mikael
1. Chapter 1: Return of Long Lost Memories

_Starting from after the ending of The Vampire Diaries season 3, episode 8: Ordinary People_

**Chapter 1: The Return of Long Lost Memories**

"I want you to remember everything, everything I made you forget," Mikael said, while looking strait into Damon's eyes. Mikael's pupils dilated, his compulsion slowly working on Damon. Damon's eyes started to wide, and he suddenly let out a high scream and slumped to the ground, holding his head in pain. Elena and Caroline hurried to Damon's side, kneeling on each of Damon's sides, holding him, while he screams, tears running down his cheeks.

"What did you do to him?" Elena screams at Mikael, looking horrified from Damon to Mikael, trying to figure out what Mikael had done to Damon. Mikael looks calmly at the three people huddling together on the ground. A small smirk slowly creeps onto his otherwise emotionless face.

"Relax. He is just getting all his long lost memories back. Nothing to be afraid of. He just needs a few minutes." Mikael went over to the small bar in the living room, and pours a glass of bourbon and took a small sip, nodding approving. "He finally learned to pick out the good stuff."

"How come he is screaming in pain, and I couldn't feel a thing when I got my memories back," Stefan said from the corner of the living room. He had been quiet ever since Mikael had appeared about an hour before, wanting to talk about finding Klaus. They had discussed a lot of ways, when Damon had suddenly decided that that was the right time to say that they didn't know if they could even trust Mikael. Mikael then ran at inhuman speed in front of Damon, looking him straight in the eye, telling him not to move. That's how Damon ended up on the ground in pain.

"That is the easy question to answer," Mikael says while turning back to the other people in the room. "That's because _you_ lost less then a year of your memories. Damon however lost about thirty years of his." Everyone in the room look up, surprised at that information. At that moment Damon became quiet. Everyone's attention turned again to Damon, who was sitting on the floor, his head on Elena's shoulders, eyes closed. Slowly he straighten up, opens his eyes and focus them on Mikael. A small, tired smile slowly creeps onto his tearstained face.

"You know, trying to rip my heart out wasn't very sweet of you. You usually just slams my head into a nearby wall or thrust a stick into my stomach. **Not** trying to rip my **freaking** heart out!" Damon said standing up slowly, cracking his neck a couple of times. Then he walks over to Mikael, stopping right in front of him. Then out of nowhere, he throws both his arms around Mikael's neck, hugging him. Mikael laughs throwing both arms around Damon's waist, hugging him tightly to his body. They stayed like that for a while before separating from each other.

"Now let me take a really good look at you," Mikael said, turning Damon in every direction, giving him a good look over. "What the hell have you done with your hair?"

"Nothing!"

"Well, that might be the problem." Mikael laughs, padding Damon on his head. Damon tries to get away from the hand, but he knew he couldn't. Mikael had always loved playing with his hair. He had no idea why, but Damon always let him. In the beginning he thought that it was a pain in the ass, and had even shaved it all of at some point to make sure Mikael couldn't touch it. Mikael had been angry, saying he had some of the most fantastic hair, and he acted like a little child with his behaviour. Damon had seen the disappointed look in Mikael's eyes, and had let it grow out once again. After some time, he had gotten used to Mikael's head petting, and it would be weird if he suddenly stopped.

Everyone in the room was looking at the pair with interest and confusion. What was going on?

"You two know each other?" Caroline asks, looking from Damon to Mikael, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Oh yeah, you could say that," Damon replies, turning around to face the rest of the room. "We meet back in the 1890's - I think it was 1897 we meet the very first time."

"No, that's not truth," Mikael injects. "I had seen you in 1864, before you became a vampire." That statement made Stefan look up.

"But how. We never saw you in Mystic Falls back in the 1800's." Stefan was confused. He had never seen Mikael when he was still a human, he was sure of that. Mikael clucked softly.

"No of cause you didn't see me. I didn't walk around in the town. I was keeping an eye on Katrina. I knew Niklaus wanted her, so I stayed near her, and waited for him to come. That's when I saw you two. After you turned, I was going to approve Damon, but he had already left the town. It took some time before I found him again. In a little bar in California. And what a surprise it was to find him there." Mikael smiles over at Damon, who would have blushed, had there not been other people in the room.

"And we are not going to talk about that," Damon said sternly, making the other people in the room curious.

"Why? What happened?" Elena was feeling a little weird about the whole idea of Damon and Mikael being friends. She didn't like the idea of them having known each other and being as close as they are. They were too friendly, too used to being close. Too used to just being there for each other. It unnerved her that Damon had someone so close to him. Someone that wasn't her.

"Oh, Damon just **really** liked dancing in his younger days," Mikael said, smiling over at Damon.

"We aren't going to talk about it." Damon really didn't think that this information, that was going to be shared to so many people, was a good idea. Now that he remembered everything, he wasn't going to let his brother know what he had done.

"Come on Damon, it can't be that bad," Caroline whines. She really, really wanted to know.

"Yeah, Damon. It can't be that bad," Mikael said, smirking. "You all really wanna know?" Everyone nodded. "Alright. Damon was a stripper." Damon had jumped on Mikael, trying to make him stay quiet, but it was to late. Everyone in the room was silent…until Stefan burst out laughing. It was the funniest thing in the world, he thought. Damon…dancing, or more like stripping. No, he couldn't see that, no way.

"Oh, shut up, Stefan." Damon was standing with his arms crossed, looking pissed. Who did Mikael think he was? So just because he was like the father he never felt he had, or like an annoying uncle, didn't give him the right to say that about him. Damon looked around the room. Everyone had started laughing. And he couldn't help it, but a small smile creeps onto his face. He looks at Mikael, and he couldn't deny that deep down, he was actually very happy that Mikael was back in his life.


	2. Chapter 2: The Summer of 1897

**Chapter 2: The Summer of 1897**

A few hours after the confrontation, the room is filled with laugher. Mikael and Damon are telling the others funny stories about their time together. The tree friends - Elena, Caroline and Stefan - are all shocked to see this knew side of Damon.

In the beginning they had all just sat there staring at them. Mikael was the one to break the ice, with, "Have Damon ever told you have he ended waist high in a lake with a New Years hat on his head?" After that there wasn't any problems. Elena is still a little wary about Mikael. She didn't trust him. He was dangerous. He was a vampire blood drinking vampire. That was just plain weird.

Caroline is a little more relaxed about the whole thing. She trusts Damon, so if Damon trusts Mikael, then she would let time be on his side. She wasn't going to judge him just yet.

Stefan was the first one to break. Damon was acting like his old self. Not that Stefan cared. He wasn't wearing his emotions on his sleeves anymore. But after a little blood and some alcohol everything was going smooth. He is laughing along with Damon and Mikael, listening to Mikael's stories and even telling some himself. Stefan and Damon are acting almost like they did when they were human. And deep down, deep _deep_ down, Stefan is happy.

"And then _I_ had to get him out of there, 'cause he was _way_ to drunk to even remember his own name," Mikael says, laughing along with Damon, remembering an old memory. It had been shortly after they had meet and Damon had decided that a drinking trip was a good idea. He had ended up drinking with the entire bar, buying drinks to all of them. He had ended up being so drunk that he couldn't walk out of the bar without help. Damon had stumbled around the town for a few hours, before Mikael had become worried and had gone looking for him. After some time he found Damon sitting on a swing in a park, looking beat. Mikael had helped Damon home and to bed. Mikael had teased him about it for years, and after being together for decades it had turned into a good memory for both of them.

The room started to go quiet again, but it is a comfortable silence. Elena had been the quietest one so far, but she had a question that had bothered her.

"How did you to so finally meet?" She is looking at both of them, waiting for an answer. Damon is leaning back in the corner of the couch, looking into the fire, remembering. Mikael is sitting in one of the chairs beside the couch, sipping on a glass of bourbon, the good stuff. He turns slightly to look at Damon.

"What do you say, Damon? Should we tell them the story of our meeting?" Damon doesn't look away from the fire, lost in the old memory. Slowly he nods his head.

"You just go on ahead. You are better at the story telling than I am," Damon says, smiling slightly. Mikael smiles a little, looking into the fire, before starting.

"It all began in a little bar in California in the summer of 1897…"

**Flashback**

It had been a cold and wet summer. Mikael was walking in the heavy rain, looking for a place to stay for the night. He had been looking for Niklaus everywhere, but had lost track of him between Seattle and Portland, and he was now trying to pick up his trail once again. That was way he was now in California.

It had been raining heavily for days now and it didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon. And that was way Mikael seriously needed a place to stay. He walked down the empty streets, looking left and right, before he came to a hotel. He walked into the hotel and was greeted with what looked like a bar. Apparently, this place was both a hotel and a bar. Mikael shrug his shoulders, he could use a drink now that he thought about it.

He went to the bar and got a glass of bourbon. He took of his dripping wet coat and put it on the counter. There were a lot of people in the bar, and everyone seemed to be waiting for something. Mikael looked around the room and sees some kind of stage to his left, a short distance from the bar where he was sitting. There were some small tables with chairs around them, right in front of the stage. There were a tall metal pole in the middle of the stage, and he could see some spotlights which you were able to control by hand. He turned his attention back to his drink and drowned the rest of it, then motioned for the bartender to refill his glass. After the bartender had refilled his glass, Mikael pointed towards the stage.

"What's going to happen," he asked in his English accent, looking towards the stage. The bartender looked towards the stage too, smiling while drying a new cleaned glass.

"That's just Damon. He is going to give a show in about half an hour or so," the bartender was smiling, clearly looking forward to this show. "You should stay and watch. He is the best in town and a lot of people come in to see him." The bartender ended is little speech, before going over to someone else at the end of the bar.

Mikael looked towards the stage again. Damon? Could it actually be Damon Salvatore! No way. _I have been looking for him for a long time now. What is the chance that it is actually him? The chances for my to walk into a random bar in the middle of a small town, on a stormy evening, was like one to zero._

Even though Mikael told himself that it wasn't Damon Salvatore, he stayed. He was a little curious about this whole thing.

So after about half an hour and a few glass' of bourbon later, all light in the bar went out. The entire room was pitch black, and everyone in the room had gone quiet. Suddenly was the spotlights turned on and they focused onto the stage. There started a sexy music in the background. The curtains at the back of the stage was pulled to the side, and there, on the stage, was a young man. He wasn't wearing any shoes. He had slender legs, but they were strong, especially his tights. He was wearing short black shorts, that left nothing to the imagination. He was wearing a very thigh, open shirt, and his chest was hairless with a taut stomach. His arm were like his legs; slender, but strong. But is was his head that catch Mikael's attention. He had jet black hair, covered with a black hat **(1)**. His eyes was a beautiful blue one, which was sparkling in the light.

He was standing with his side to the audience, with his right hand on his hat. Then he started to dance. His movements was precise and sensual. He moved to the pole, dancing against it as a second dance partner. All eyes in the room were focused on Damon's sexual movements. He was gliding up and down the pole. Spreading his legs while going down. Moving his hips to the music. Around the pole and hanging from it in his legs.

Mikael was paralyzed. Damon was good or more like great. Mikael was impressed. Damon knew his body, knew what he was capable of and what he couldn't do. And people loved him. Everyone was staring up at Damon, following his every move, never talking their eyes off of him. A lot of people would properly have been uncomfortable, standing up there all alone with all of the attention. But not Damon. He looked like he enjoyed it. He looked like he _liked_ all of the attention he was getting. Damon was loving it. Loving that he was the centre of attention, that all eyes were on him.

Damon kept on dancing, making the temperature in the room going higher and higher. Damon's shirt fell from his shoulders. The audience whistle and making cat-calls. Damon was smirking, slowly moving down, with his back to the audience. Damon kept on dancing, and Mikael had no idea for how long. Damon ended his dance, and vanished behind the curtains.

Mikael emptied his glass, stood up and headed to the room behind the scene. There were a guard standing there.

"Let me through," Mikael said, looking straight into the guards eyes. The guard stepped aside and Mikael walked through the door behind him. Behind the door was a small hall with a couple of doors. He couldn't hear anyone behind any of the door, except the on at the end of the hall. He smirked a little, when he heard Damon move around on the other side. He walked to the door and stopped in front of it. After a few seconds he opened the door. On the other side of the door was a small locker-like room. There was a few lockers with benches in front of them. In the other end of the room there was an opening in the wall, leading to what appeared to be a shower room. He could hear that the shower was on. Mikael said down on one of the benches, throwing his jacket beside him. After a few minutes he heard the shower being turned of. Damon emerged after a few seconds, a towel wrapped around his waist, water dripping down his face. He stopped in his tracks and looked at Mikael weirdly.

"Who the hell are you?" Damon asked looking around the room, before his eyes once again landed on Mikael.

"The name's Mikael," Mikael said, standing up from the bench, taking a few steps closer to Damon. "I have been looking for you."

Damon looked suspiciously at Mikael, no trusting him. "Why? What do you want from me."

"Relax kid, I'm not here to kill you. And I know what you are."

"How do you…" Damon was cut of.

"Because I'm a vampire too." Damon gasped, looking shocked.

"Then… what do you want from me? I got nothing for you."

Mikael stayed quiet for a few seconds before replying, "I'm saw you, while you were still human. You are quite different from most other vampires I have ever come across. And trust me: that's a lot." Mikael smiled at Damon before turning serious again. "I have been alone for a long time now. And I miss a challenge. I think you can give me that," Mikael paused for a second. "And I think that you are tired of travelling alone, and working in a place like this."

Damon was quiet for a few minutes, looking at the floor before answering, "I am tired of travelling alone, but I don't have a problem with this job, I like it. You should know that a vampire didn't have to work, if he doesn't want to," Damon finished. He looked around for a moment before focusing back to Mikael. "You know what? Let me change into my cloth, then you can buy me a drink, and we can talk about it." Mikael nodded his agreement before leaving Damon alone. He didn't say that he wouldn't have to buy anything, but knew that Damon already knew that.

**End flashback**

"And that was how me met," Mikael ended his storytelling with a large smirk on his face. His body is leaning back into his chair, looking at the teenagers in the room.

"And…? What happened then?" Caroline asks, looking intensely at Mikael, wanting to know what happened then. Mikael just smiled at her, not saying a word. Caroline turned her eyes from Mikael to Damon, hoping that he would break, but be too just sad there not saying anything. Caroline gave a sigh and gave up. They were obviously not going to say anything more.

"So **you** gave **Mikael** a sexual strip dance thingy the first time you two meet?" Stefan asks, looking at Damon, laughing a little. Damon gave him a death glare, which could have killed the dead.

"I wasn't striping for **him**, but all the others in the room," Damon replies, "And no matter what you say Stefan, I am not ashamed about being able to make a guy hard," Damon said ending that conversation.

"It was actually a good thing I came by when I did, or Damon would probably be dead right now," Mikael says, looking Damon straight in the eye.

"Man, you just had to bring that one up, huh?" Damon asks, looking away.

"What are you talking about?" Elena asks, looking from Mikael to Damon and then back to Mikael, but they didn't say a thing.

The entire room had gone deadly quiet.

_**(1)** The hat I am talking about is the hat Neal Caffrey is wearing in the show White Collar. I think it is called a fedora or something. I am not that smart on hats, but I really like Neal's hat :)_


End file.
